Entries in Dutch
(10)

Helene Wiesenhaan/WireImage/Getty Images(INNSBRUCK, Austria) -- The second son of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands is in intensive care with what sources in the Netherlands media say is a fractured skull, after he was swept up in an avalanche.

Prince Johan Friso of the Netherlands is in critical but stable condition at a hospital in Innsbruck, Austria, the Dutch government said Friday. The government statement said that, “doctors treating him describe the prince’s condition as stable, but his life remains at risk.”

Prince Friso was skiing with three others in the Austrian resort of Lech when the avalanche hit around noon Friday. The 43-year-old Prince and the rest of his party were skiing on unmarked slopes in an area on high alert for avalanches due to heavy snowfall.

The Austrian Press Agency reported that he was buried for 15 minutes. Prince Friso reportedly was unconscious when he was pulled from the snow, and had to be resuscitated. The three other skiers were not hurt.

Prince Friso is the manager of a private equity fund in London, where he lives with his wife and two children. He is not in line for the throne, because he married Mabel Wisse Smit without the government’s permission in 2004.

The Dutch government said the Queen was not involved in the accident. The mountain town of Lech in Austria is a favourite winter vacation spot for the Dutch royal family.

Medioimages/Photodisc/Thinkstock(AMSTELVEEN, The Netherlands) -- A new policy by a Dutch airline will allow passengers to choose their seatmates based on Facebook and LinkedIn profiles.

KLM hopes to roll out the "Social Seating" policy in 2012, according to a company representative.

The airline will allow fliers to access other passengers' social media information when checking onto a flight online and then choose their seatmate based on similar interests, USA Today reported. They will also be able to link their own social media profiles with their check-in information, allowing others to see and choose them.

The policy would also allow passengers to opt out of the service if they want, the report said.

A KLM representative said the project was still in its development phase and the company could not yet share details on how it would work.

Other attempts to integrate social networking and air travel have floundered in the past, including a failed company called AirTroductions, which offered an online dating service for frequent travelers.

MARCEL ANTONISSE/AFP/Getty Images(SYDNEY) -- Last year, Australian 16-year-old Jessica Watson sailed around the world solo.

The same year, American Abby Sunderland, also 16, made it from California to the Indian Ocean alone on her sailboat before a rogue wave tore off the mast of the boat, forcing her to end her trip.

Since then, another teenage girl took on the sea, and now she’s more than halfway finished with her journey.

Dutch teen Laura Dekker is trying to break Watson’s record of being the youngest person to sail around the world solo. After a legal battle with the Dutch government -- which initially objected to the teen making the trip -- Dekker set off from Gibraltar in August 2010, when she was 14.

Now 16, she has spent more than a year sailing the ocean on her 39-foot ketch, named “Guppy.”

Dekker, who has taken several breaks on land during her voyage, told Australian TV she doesn’t mind the solitude of her boat.

“I’m totally used to it,” she said. “For me, it’s really normal!”

Dekker’s father has been quoted as saying she could complete her trip as soon as this February or March. For now, after successfully crossing the Indian Ocean, Dekker’s voyage has taken her to South Africa, where she recently ventured off the Guppy and regained her land legs to take in the sights at a nature preserve in Port Elizabeth.

Photodisc/Getty Images(ROTTERDAM, Netherlands) -- Sixty-five thousand calls plus one year equals one stalking charge. That’s the equation facing a 42-year-old Dutch woman who allegedly called a man 65,000 times in the past year.

The woman finally had her call answered this week, not by the man she says was her ex-boyfriend but by Dutch prosecutors who charged her with stalking.

Police arrested the unidentified, suspected stalker Monday, seizing several cell phones and computers from her home in Rotterdam.

The arrest came after the 62-year-old recipient of the persistent calls filed a police complaint earlier this month. He denies having any relationship with the woman.

A look at the statistical breakdown of the woman’s phone-calling habits sheds light on the multiple cellphones seized in the raid of her home.

To reach 65,000 calls, the woman had to have called 178 times a day. That’s nearly eight calls an hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week or one phone call every eight minutes, without ever stopping.

Proving, perhaps, that the bestselling U.S. book and movie, He’s Just Not That Into You, was never translated into Dutch, the woman told court officials her call volume was normal.

Nonetheless, her alleged ex can now safely put his phone back on the hook.

Hemera Technologies/Thinkstock(MAASTRICHT, Netherlands) -- Traffic came to a standstill Monday in Maastricht, Netherlands, as drivers ditched their cars in the middle -- and on the sides -- of the road to pocket euros dropped from a “money truck.” Video from the Dutch Broadcasting Foundation (NOS) captured people dodging passing vehicles to pick up the cash littering the highway.

One man was seen smiling as he scooped up a few bills, jumped back into his car with another fellow and quickly drove away.

The section that came down of the Grolsch Veste stadium in Enschede -- where the soccer team FC Twente play -- fell directly above rows of seats behind one of the goals. The collapse occured while off-season renovation work was going on.

Enschede Mayor Peter den Oudsten told reporters that one person died, while 10 others were transported to nearby hospitals and three were treated on the spot. All of the victims are believed to be construction workers.

Den Oudsten also said that sniffer dogs were being used to find any other victims that may be trapped.

Thinkstock Images/Comstock(ALPHEN AAN DEN RIJN, Netherlands) -- A gunman opened fire on shoppers at a Dutch mall Saturday, leaving at least five people dead and 11 others wounded before taking his own life, officials said.

The suspect used what appeared to be a machine gun to shoot people at random, according to one witness quoted by BBC News. Authorities described the weapon simply as “automatic.”

Four of the injured were in critical condition, officials said.

It was not immediately clear what prompted the attack. The shooter’s identity was not released.

The shopping center – about 15 miles southwest of Amsterdam – was placed on lockdown after the shootings.

Stockbyte/Thinkstock(TRIPOLI, Libya) -- Libya continues to hold three Dutch marines that its forces captured last weekend while the trio was attempting to evacuate Dutch citizens fleeing the northern part of the country.

As of Friday, the Dutch government was still in the process of negotiating with Libyan officials to win the safe return of its soldiers.

Two civilians who were also taken into custody when the Dutch marines were detained have since been turned over to the Dutch embassy in Tripoli.

Officials from the Dutch government said they have spoken personally to the three marines and they appear to be in good shape.

Libyan authorities are still resisting attempts to release the soldiers while the Dutch defense ministry steps up the already intensive negotiations to win their freedom.﻿

Photo Courtesy - ABC News/Handout(NEW YORK) -- The Dutch forensics team charged with examining a jaw bone that washed up on an Aruban beach has had Natalee Holloway's dental records in hand since Tuesday, more than enough time to make a comparison, a source close to the family said Friday.

"They almost certainly know by now the results," the source told ABC News. "There are mixed signals," the source said. "If it wasn't her I'd think they'd come out and say it wasn't her with all the fanfare."

Aruban prosecutor Peter Blanken made headlines Thursday by telling CNN that the jaw bone was that of a young woman. Yet, after flying to the Netherlands for the testing, Blanken is headed home to Aruba, the source said, based on information out of Aruba.

The Forensic Institute said earlier this week that the announcement of the findings would be left to Aruban authorities. The bone, which the Dutch-language paper de Telegraff reported was the lower half of the jaw with one molar still intact, was found by tourists last week on a beach in Aruba.

Holloway, an 18-year-old high school senior from Alabama, vanished in the island country in May 2005 while on a school trip. If the bone is confirmed to be Holloway's it would be the first piece of physical evidence that the teenager was dead.

The suspect in her disappearance has long been Dutch playboy Joran van der Sloot, who has never been formally charged. Van der Sloot, who was 17 years old at the time of Holloway's disappearance, is now being held in a Peruvian prison after confessing to the murder of Stephany Flores, 21, earlier this year.